Connecting to the land through environmental observation.

[MacMillan & Hand-Rudy] Sonja Hinrichsen

[Polly Addison] Kathleen Probst

[McMahon] ReCalling Re/Call curated by Louise Martorano

Curatorial statement:

Land affects all of us. From the moment we take our first steps to the realization that the land we walk on may not actually belong to us, the place where we settle, grow, and become who we are shapes us in unexpected and often unbelievable ways. 

Artists, in particular, have always been drawn to the grandeur of the land and have been able to interpret and scrutinize it with honed detail in many different forms. Some artists connect to the earth through physical touch and interaction, performing on top or within a landscape, while even more artists use traditional methods of creation to process the landscape that surrounds them. With Grounded, the Dairy Art Center focuses on three distinct approaches to artists reacting to their landscape. 

In the MacMillan Family Lobby extended through the Hand/Rudy Gallery is artist Sonja Hinrichsen. Presented primarily through photographic documentation, Hinrichsen’s ephemeral Snow Drawings “accentuate natural features and emphasize the sublime beauty” hidden beneath the freshly fallen snow of the sites she chooses or is invited to work with. Often collaborating with a large group of public volunteers, Hinrichsen guides groups in the creation of snow drawings, created through walking looping paths with snowshoes in fields of snow or on frozen lakes.

In the Hand/Rudy Gallery, Hinrichsen traces the looping, man-made lines from her various snow drawings over the years. Through a series of performances, Hinrichsen traces images of the projected landscape, while documenting the performance. Building upon each performance she projects the documentation and traces the relief on top of the evidence of the prior. The layered work that is left within the gallery space is an artifact of observation, physical connection to the land, and feels topographical in nature.

The Polly Addison Gallery takes a different approach to landscape with the hard-edged fiber abstractions of Idaho-based artist Kathleen Probst. Her works are interested in pairing down a composition to the most essential elements, showcasing the artist’s intricate quilting technique and hand-dyed fabric. With forms reminiscent of icebergs, jutting mountain peaks, and folded origami sculpture, Probst subverts these sharp, powerful objects in a softened, welcoming way through her use of color and material.